mostly research stuff
yeah, so here’s some strange news: email and instant messaging might be wicked harmful to your brain, according to a recent study by glenn wilson (and some others with the same research interests) at king’s college of london…they did this study recently, got a good write up of the whole thing in the guardian, but since i know that most blog readers are reading blogs specifically because they enjoy just the skinny and not the ‘click here for next page‘ version of things, here’s what’s shakin’ at kcl:
“The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers.” that’s the opener…very catchy…comparing anything to pot gets high marks (oh we are a sad people, huh?)…they studied about 1,100 people who described email as having an “addictive, drug like grip“…”Respondents’ minds were all over the place as they faced new questions and challenges every time an email dropped into their inbox. Productivity at work was damaged and the effect on staff who could not resist trying to juggle new messages with existing work was the equivalent, over a day, to the loss of a night’s sleep.”
..and the clincher: glenn did this set of 80 clinical trials with some moola provided by hewlett packard (hey, you can’t fault hp for having varied interests, since most of what they offer tends to be crapola)…major findings: “The average IQ loss was measured at 10 points, more than double the four point mean fall found in studies of cannabis users“…and this raises a very, very serious concern about the cumulative loss for “cannabis users” who already habitual users and use im and email…are they doomed? is this a future citation in the history-of-modern-man’s-demise entry within some far off encyclopedia? damn, imagine if everybody used email way back in the sixties…well, at least somebody is finally spending real money on purposeful research, duh-hoy…
this blog is mostly safe for work, though i sometimes throw around a 'fuck' or two. you'll find a bunch of my articles from CI Magazine, SCIP online, other research pieces and some other crap. enjoy. there's lost of content here related to getting information about, around, from and through people and organizations...
matt
May 10th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
And this is why the majority of my techno- granola-head hippie freinds that are using ebay to constantly bid on their next bag of magic crystals can’t remember where they parked their VW’s.